Archives for February 2024

Hiya Babe,
Another day of intending to do one thing and ending up doing something quite different. Started out with plans to take Apollo on a little ride, thought about taking him up to Watermelon Pond, then got an email saying they were burning in that area, so then I figured we could stay closer to home, but that didn't work out either. I started doing a few little things on my computer, and one thing just led to another, and the whole day went frustratingly by. I made my reservations for the hotel in Vegas for the Red Rock Ride, though I'm astonished that the first Saturday is already sold out, so I'm either going to have to go to a different hotel or fly on Sunday, or keep my fingers crossed that a room will open up, which I have to believe will happen since we're so far out. I can't believe June is fully booked already! I spent most of my time on hold, though, trying to solve my inverter control panel problem. I've tackled this problem several times over the last few months and hadn't been able to resolve it, but today I was determined. I was on hold with Xantrex for nearly an hour before I talked to someone, who gave me the model number and price and even sent me a picture to confirm it's the right one, all in about three minutes once we hooked up. It turned out I was talking to the wrong department anyway, so she transferred me to the right department, and was given a list of name of distributors, since they don't like to sell direct to the public, as it makes their retailers mad. I contacted every name she gave me, and they all gave me a runaround about how I needed to be a retailer, or how it would take days to get a price an availability (the manufacturer already told me they had them available), and on and on. I finally got so fed up, I called the manufacturer back and begged them to sell me one, and she (the second woman I spoke to) took it up the chain of command, and within a few minutes, cleared it to have them send me one. Free. Whoo-hoo! So I wasted a lot of time, but managed to get a happy outcome. Hopefully I'll have that in a few days. It's not that the old one isn't working, but it's definitely going. Just the switches, which I really have to finagle with to get them to work, and sometimes I'm convinced they never will, then at the last minute, do. They won't one day, though, and I'd rather repair it now and not have to worry about it anymore. After that, I made some dinner, fed the horses, and rushed around to get to a Taste of Goethe meeting at 5:30 where I helped them set up a Paypal account and some other stuff. Was after 8:30 by the time that was done, so a late evening. Settling down to my tea, the last half of a Northern Exposure episode, my Lorna Doone's and soon, a shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
A good night sleep, a fairly quiet morning, until I decided to see how my truck was doing after yesterday. While I had no trouble driving it home in the afternoon, I still didn't have gauges, and my brake controller still wasn't working properly. So I tried to start it, and I had nothing. Batteries were flat again. I forgot to unplug it from the trailer last night, so I think that may have caused it, especially if there's a short of some kind in my brake controller. So I put the charger on and let it charge all morning. Around noon, I tried again. This time I had an even weirder problem. It cranked right up, than immediately died. I tried it several times, same thing. I texted the mechanic, John, and he agreed to come out after work and take a look. I ended up spending most of the day working on the computer, doing some trail planning and writing some emails about various topics. A pretty quiet day. John arrived shortly after 5:00 and proceed to try to check the codes, but couldn't establish communication with the ECM. Then he began to check fuses, which all seemed okay, but then he started pulling them out and putting them back in again. I don't know if that knocked off some corrosion or something, but suddenly he was able to get a list of codes, and it seemed endless! Lots of little stuff, including an apparent anti-theft device that shuts off the fuel when in doubt, which seems to be the answer to what was going on this morning. Anyway, we fiddled around with it some more, and he cleared the codes, and everything except the brake controller seemed to get back to normal. Then we worked on that, couldn't exactly find what was wrong, when it suddenly began working again! Crazy! I still think there's a bad connection, but I'm not going to touch it again while it's still working. So for the moment, we're back to normal. Don't know how long it will last, but we're good for the moment! I left the charger on, hopefully that will remedy the problem. It's possible my batteries have aged out and that may be contributing, or I do have an intermittent short in my brake controller, I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. As soon as John left I fed the horses, had dinner, binge-watched a little TV, and, as usual, am ready for tea, shower and bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe,
When I got going this morning, my plan was to take Flash down to Tidewater to remove a tree and try to put up some ribbons where we're hoping the Purple Trail road bypass will be, but after Rick got here, we ended up deciding to go to Bailey Mine. I had someone in the FB group mention it didn't get enough attention, so I thought there might be issues there, but we drove the entire 5-mile length of the designated trail and only came across one downed tree, which was nothing. All the markers were good, so I don't know what the issue is, other than there are issues on the non-designated trail, in which case, it will have to be done by horseback or on a volunteer day, which I can arrange, but I'd like to see if there's enough to do to warrant that. Anyway, by then it was lunchtime, so we drove into Chiefland (by accident) and had a fabulous lunch at ABC Pizza, which also served Greek and Mediterranean food, and I had a wonderful little appetizer of spinach and cheese in Filo pastry and a baklava for lunch, may not even need dinner tonight. We stopped at Ace on the way back where I picked up a couple of things I needed, then got back to camp around 3:00. There was a trailer from the Sheriff's office here doing some equestrian training, chatted with them for a couple of minutes, then got busy repairing the extension cord that burned out last month with a new end, and finished the day by putting a permanent connection on the brake controller, now that I know what the problem was. Finally getting settled down for dinner, TV, tea, shower and bed! Love you, Sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Was up a bit earlier than I planned, worked on my shoulder and a crick in my neck that I've had a couple of weeks now, then got my chores and breakfast done before going to work on my truck. My brake controller has been blinking a code for a few days, saying it's a power interruption when I step on the brake, and I'm lousy with a multi-meter, so Bev's friend Doc came over and gave me a little assist. He didn't exactly pinpoint the problem, but he did lead me in the right direction, so I finally just decided to reconnect the joint of the offending wire, and then it came back to life and seemed to work fine after that. I only put a temporary connection on it at the moment, need to get some better connectors. Did several loads of laundry, finished counting the last box of markers for the Suwannee ride while putting them on cardboard, then sent my final trail plan to the others involved for their comments and suggestions. Answered a few questions on Facebook, worked on getting maps for Bailey Mine and Watermelon Pond, two satellite properties of Goethe I haven't been to yet, but need to do. Eventually started napping in my recliner, this busy week catching up, and I was hoping for a really quiet day, but it didn't exactly happen. Busy in the day parking, of course, and had several conversations with folks out there today. Played a few computer games, finally settling down for the evening. Tried to finish off the Eureka series, but for some reason, I had trouble streaming it. I thought things had actually improved when I moved slightly uphill, but that doesn't seem to be the case tonight for some reason. I did finally get to watch a movie, Greenfingers, about prisoners taking part in the Hampton Garden show in England, which was fun. Anyway, a good day, albeit not as relaxing as I had hoped, but satisfying nonetheless! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had a great night sleep, and for once I didn't set the alarm as my only scheduled item was late in the day. Did my morning chores, a little housework, re-planned the Suwannee Ride that's happening in a couple of weeks (which I already did once, but then my computer re-booted itself before I saved it and lost it all) but it's probably better than what I had before anyway. It rained a little in the morning and then cleared up for awhile. I checked the air in the tires of the little trailer and had to put a little in, then hooked up so that I would be ready when it was time to go. I've been getting an error on my brake controller, and noticed a loose wire, so I reconnected that, hoping that would do the trick. I also spent some time sorting through the markers for that ride, putting them on cardboard the way I like them, and counting to make sure we had enough to do all the trails. I don't want to have to make up a bunch more at the last minute! Seems like we should have enough, but I'm not quite done counting. Naturally, just as we reached the time to leave, we had a great downpour of rain, so I got a bit wet, and so did Flash. Got him loaded up and went to the Chi University, met Jo over there as planned, and her horse Peaches and Flash both got a student massage, and then got finished off by the clinician. Flash was SO GOOD! Considering he'd never had anything like this before, everyone was very impressed about how calm and responsive he was. He evidently has a little muscle atrophy in his left should, Jo thinks it's because I do so much leaning to the right when I'm working on trails, which seems plausible, but maybe a bit far-fetched. Don't know what else would be causing it, though. Everything else on him seemed fine, and everybody fell in love with him. What a good horse! Not sure Apollo will be quite so tame tomorrow, but we'll see! Sorry to say my wire fix didn't work on my brake controller, will have to do a little more research to figure out what's wrong. Got back just as the sun was setting, got them fed, me fed, then settled down for the evening. Supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, I might go riding with Pistol, though if I remember last time our horses weren't too compatible, so we'll see. Feels a little more relaxed this weekend, with no rides to be involved with, and being able to sleep in a bit is nice, though I'll probably have to get up earlier tomorrow if I want to ride in the morning. Anyway, I have my tea and cookies, shower and bed are soon to follow! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Well, I got up pretty early and got my chores done, and was out moving the trailer around before 9:00, and once I had it hooked up at a different angle, I had trouble pulling it onto the two boards, which made it almost perfectly level! Yay! I then went to work getting everything set back up, the screen room on, the skirting for my hay storage, all of it. It didn't take terribly long, thank goodness. Rick showed up to finish the electric, though he was having trouble getting the right parts to finish it off, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to move the electric over, but eventually he said it was fixed, so we plugged in. I got everything hooked up, even changed the water filter, which was overdue, and laid out the sewer pipe to about where the trap was, because I wanted to make sure they didn't pull it too far away so that I couldn't reach it. Finally, I gave Lola a bath before heading over to Chi University, an holistic medicine veterinary training school about half an hour away. I signed Lola up to be a subject dog for training, which meant a free therapeutic chiropractic/massage for her. Her back legs have really been giving her a hard time lately, with one leg locking up occasionally, and the other just seeming to be sore. They pointed out some swelling in her hocks, and did their best to make her more comfortable, but the clinician suggested x-rays and possibly acupuncture to help her. Lola was brilliant! At first, she was very tentative, mostly because she was standing on a low table, which she recognized as a "vet" thing and wasn't too happy about it, but eventually she relaxed into it and seemed to enjoy it. She was calm and quiet the whole time, except a little growl when another dog in the class next door gave here a look. Anyway, that lasted two hour, then we headed out to the UPS store to drop off a return, then to Publix next door to pick up a few items, then to the hay place, where I stocked up now that I have a storage space again, then to Jo's to pick up the tarp which arrived a couple of days ago. Lola played a little with Jo's dogs, but you could tell she wasn't walking the way she should, though she was better than before the clinic. I somehow lost a bale between the hay place and her, but the guy threw in a couple of extras because a few were a bit light, so it didn't really matter. Not worth it to go in search of it! Finally got back to camp, and discovered that our new volunteer plumber had completely finished the sewer line, and had even covered it all back up with dirt. Looks great! I put the groceries away, then Bill helped me put the hay away before heading back to Tidewater where he is camping (though he's moving over here for a week beginning tomorrow), then I fed the horses, made dinner, then walked over to Bev's campsite (my friend from Jax who arrived just as I was leaving today), and sat around the campfire with her for more than an hour. A beautiful full moon, a nice crisp night, perfect camping! Got back to the trailer and put my own electric fireplace on, ready for shower and bed as soon as I finish watching the Eureka I started during dinner, and have my tea. A full day! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
Lots of work done today! Rick arrived in the late morning, and got busy on laying down the sewer pipe and working on the electric. Lo and behold, in the early afternoon, a camper showed up, well, he had reservations for later this week and came in to check out the site, and wouldn't you know? Turns out he's a plumber and fix-it guy! Rick made a deal with him (Bill) to get his camping for free if he helped, and he jumped right in! He managed to tie in the water spigot, so that got done, and he dug a trench for the sewer that went from the trench we already dug to right where we're going to tie into that. Rick almost got the electric in, but then discovered the brand new breaker he had wasn't working the way it should, and the new box didn't have the right kind of screws, so I didn't end up with electric yet, but I was so ready to move, I put everything away, hooked up and pulled out. They finally left to go to the shop, then I worked on getting into the site. It took awhile, the gravel is so soft and the angle is a bit tricky. The first real attempt ended up with me not going far enough back, because it seemed like I was really leaning too much to one side, but I didn't like being so far forward, so I decided to try again, going back a lot farther. I was definitely still leaning, so I pushed back a bit and put a board down under my tires to get it more level (though I think I'll need two), but then my truck tires got stuck. At that point it was getting too late, so I just parked it there, unhooked, and ran an extra extension cord to the pavilion so I'd have electric. Not putting anything else in place until I get it where I want it. The plan is to come at the gooseneck hitch from a different angle and then be able to roll it up onto the boards, and hopefully that will make me level again! Fingers crossed! I am hooked up with water now, though, and it looks like the rest of it will be done tomorrow, too, both electric and sewer, so at least I'm making some headway! Three steps forward and just a baby step back, so progress is made! Had a nice fish dinner, finishing off my tea with a couple of sugar cookies, won't be long out of bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Well, we're a few steps closer to moving into our new site! After spending the morning sending out more PSA's and signing up to more Event calendars to local radio stations, Rick showed up around 1:00. I went out to help, and we managed to get the electrical box put in, part of the trench covered over, the water spigot in and pinned to it's post, and part of the prep for the rest of the circuitry in the bathroom closet. All that's left is to run the electrical wire through the conduit and get it into the breaker box (easier said than done) and to tie into the water spigot that's already behind the bathrooms. The sewer is something that will take longer to finish, mainly because it seems impossible to find a plumber that's available. Rick's called at least three, two with full voice mailboxes and one that seems very indefinite about when he'd be available. He's starting to think he may have to do it himself! I can live without that for now, I've been using my portable tank anyway, so it's no hardship. If Rick can finish of the first two projects tomorrow, I may just be able to move over tomorrow afternoon! Fingers crossed! Another bit of good news, I received my first mail delivery here! I don't have an official mailbox, but the mailman stops by here every day to use the facilities, and awhile back I asked him if he would deliver things to me if they were addressed to the trailhead, and he said he would. I ordered a couple of pair of cargo pants from Amazon and they were supposed to arrive on Sunday but never showed up, turns out they were being delivered by the post office, and the weekend guy didn't bother to come out, but Bruce brought them out today, so I'm a happy camper! Both pair fit much better, so now I have a new wardrobe. Just getting a bit tired of plain old jeans! Anyway, it was a good, productive day, which I finished off with a boring romance mystery, a cup of tea and a cookie, so now it's bedtime. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!